Officials: Fishermen caught mustard gas off NY

[tyler811]

What the hell are people thinking????? Why in the hell would you just drop this shit in the ocean nilly willy????

BOSTON (AP) — State and federal officials worked Tuesday to decontaminate a clam boat anchored in isolation off Massachusetts after it dredged up old munitions containing mustard gas, severely sickening a crewman.

The military used the ocean as a dumping ground for munitions from after World War II through 1970. While the tons of old chemical weapons in offshore waters present a danger to fishermen, experts don't believe they are a possible source of weapons for terrorists.

The Defense Department began using the ocean as a dumping ground for chemical and conventional munitions after World War II. The military says it stopped in 1970, and two years later Congress banned waste disposal in oceans, including chemical weapons.
Officials say it's impossible to know exactly how much and what type of weapons have been dumped in the ocean because of incomplete records. A 2001 Army report found 74 past instances of ocean disposal — 32 off U.S. shores and 42 off foreign coasts. For example, in 1967 the Army dumped 4,577 one-ton containers of a mustard agent and 7,380 sarin rockets off the New Jersey shore, according to Army records.
Only some of the ocean dumps were mapped, and chemical munitions have been found in areas they weren't supposed to have been dumped, such as just a few miles off Hawaii, said Craig Williams of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a Kentucky-based organization.

http://charter.net/news/read.php?rip_id=%3CD9G7BSA80%40news.ap.org%3E&ps=1011&sc_cid=homepage_newsDCC_article4&page=2

 

[Imp]

Water cleans all?

 

[Newbian]

The better question at that time is why not drop it off there?

Most countries use the ocean as a dumping ground for this kind of stuff so we can help create Godzilla to save us when Mothra attacks.

 

[Regs]

One more reason not to go swimming at the Jersey Shore this year.

 

[Ika]

For example, in 1967 the Army dumped 4,577 one-ton containers of a mustard agent and 7,380 sarin rockets off the New Jersey shore, according to Army records.

no wonder the jersey shore's so messed up... :hmm:

 

[DeadByDawn]

Diluted mustard gas shouldn't be too bad, sarin on the other hand can't be too good. Heck, haven't they lost atomic bombs in the ocean before and have never found them?

 

[Rubycon]

Well at least this reacts and burns immediately.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY7mTCMvpEM

 

[zoiks]

There are about 47,500 barrels of radioactive waste that were sunk by the government along the Farallone Islands about 19 miles from San Francisco. Not only that, they sunk the USS Independence there too which is a ship they used as a nuclear target near the Bikini Atoll.

 

[mmntech]

There are about 47,500 barrels of radioactive waste that were sunk by the government along the Farallone Islands about 19 miles from San Francisco. Not only that, they sunk the USS Independence there too which is a ship they used as a nuclear target near the Bikini Atoll.

That explains the hippies... I always figured there was something in the water in San Fran. :hmm:
No wonder they're always so anti-nuclear.

 

[coldmeat]

it's willy nilly